Department of Pharmaceutical Analysis

Tinne Monteyne

Obtained degree of Doctor in Pharmaceutical Sciences in 2016 at:

Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Process Analytical Technology
Ottergemsesteenweg 460
B-9000 Gent (Belgium)

Education: Pharmacist (Master in Drug Development)

Continuous melt granulation: Understanding and optimization of the process

Within the scope of increased pharmaceutical process efficiency, there is a growing interest in continuous processes. Twin-screw hot melt granulation is a valuable, still unexplored alternative to granulate temperature and moisture sensitive drugs in a continuous way. The understanding of the material behavior during processing is necessary to reduce the amount of preliminary experiments and to optimize the process and hence reducing process-time and energy costs and increasing productivity and flexibility. These advantages make just in time production a more realistic goal.

The aim of the PhD research is…

  1. To evaluate the use of fatty acids in a formulation for continuous hot melt granulation.
  2. To gain better understanding of the interrelationship between process variables and excipient properties during continuous melt granulation and their influence on granule and tablet properties.
  3. To evaluate rheology combined with microscopy as predictive tool for the elucidation of the agglomeration mechanism, and examine how rheological information can be used to optimize the process.
  4. To implement PAT-tools inline to control the critical quality and performance attributes during the hot melt granulation process.

Publication

  • Burggraeve, A.; Monteyne, T.; Remon, J.P.; Vervaet, C.; De Beer, T. (2013). Process analytical tools for monitoring, understanding and control of pharmaceutical fluidized bed granulation: a review. European Journal of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics, 83, 2-15.